Creative Freedom and Seagull Heads

Size the hat to the head of the person wearing it before you begin.  
Make sure the beak is short enough so the wearer can see!

Every time I've worked with someone new on a creative project, I've always learned something new.  Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and we all bring something unique to the table of creativity. 

After gluing your beak on the appropriately sized baseball cap,
cut many strips of felt about 1-1/2 inches wide.

Slice the felt into tabs, and then round off the edges of each tab to make feathers.

Using a glue gun, glue each strip of felt feathers onto your cap, beginning at the bottom rim of the cap.

If you're going to ask for help from people, they might ask for very specific directions on how to do the task you've assigned them. Or, they just might want some creative freedom to do it their own way.

Continue making smaller and smaller circles, overlapping the feathers as you go.

Either way, be careful to give clear directions but still allow for some variation in the finished result.  Appreciate that the finished product might look different than you had originally planned, and that's ok. Sometimes I have problems with this myself, but years of working in a preschool changed the way I look at things.  You can give ten children the same set of materials and every one of them will use them in a different way.  Many times you'll be astounded and impressed with their results.

Add an extra strip of feathers on any side necessary to ensure that the center
of the open circle stays roughly near the top of the hat.

Last year I asked a parent to paint two mermaids for me.  She asked me what color scheme, and I asked her what she had in mind.  She told me, and it was something I had never thought of.  The results were AWESOME.  Whenever you ask for help, it becomes a collaborative vision, not just YOUR vision.

Glue on eyeballs of concentric circles in black, white and grey.
Glue a vertical feather on the very top,  just for the sheer heck of it.

Appreciate your helpers, and realize that they'll only enjoy what they're doing if you let them have enough creative freedom to be proud of their creations.

Snowy-Night Project - Seagull Wings

This is a front seat view of my commute home this afternoon.  The traffic was moving at about 25 miles per hour, which is why I was able to snap this picture.  Once I was home, and dinner was over, some really pressing questions filled my mind...  How am I going to make it through a nice cozy evening at home without overdoing it on the snack eating?  Visions of ice cream filled my mind...  the Oreos my husband bought yesterday called me from the kitchen counter...  I thought about having some carrots instead, but alas!  Carrots do not taste at all like ice cream.

I finally admitted to myself it was time to stop procrastinating and make the damn seagull wings I had promised I would make for the school play.

You probably don't need step by step instructions on how to make these - they are relatively simple and you really don't even need to know how to sew if you're handy with a hot glue gun.  The pair I was copying this design from was hot glued, not sewn.  

Still, when you are cutting multiple layers of "feathers" out of felt and then sitting in a teeny, tiny chair in front of a large rubbermaid tote on which your sewing machine is perched, even a simple project can take a long time.  Especially when you're making 3 pairs of wings... and each wing has 9 layers. 

I realized, though, that sewing is a good thing to do when you're trying to avoid eating junk food.  Mainly because it requires two hands.  Unless you want to risk sewing over your finger with your machine.  Which hurts a lot.  Don't ask me how I know this. 

In this picture, the wings are just draped over the arms...

These are actually almost done - they still need elastic on the back side of each of them to hold them to the wearer's arms, and also to hold them together, but I don't have elastic.  I'm hoping I can get someone else to take care of that step.  Right now, I'm tired.  

Too tired even to eat snack.  

Thank goodness...